Letters From Lark : July Update & New Virtual Coworking
Do you believe in magic?
For as long as I can remember, I’ve loved stories about magic. As a kid, I was obsessed with all things magical that I was allowed to get my hands on… Matilda and The Witches, The Lioness Rampant series, The Hobbit & Lord of the Rings, Chronicles of Narnia, The Secret Garden, the Cottingley Fairies, and on and on. I was constantly making magic potions in jars and adding to my rock collection.
In fifth grade, I had a sketchbook dedicated to colored pencil drawings of nature-book style magical creatures I made up, complete with their environmental and dietary preferences. In middle school, my best friend and I learned elvish script so we could pass un-decodable notes to each other in class.
As an adult, I continue to love all things magic. I refer to my tinctures, teas, meads, and ferments as my kitchen witchery. I jokingly/not jokingly think of my dog as my familiar. I’m in a band that regularly plays hobbit parties. I go to an annual earthskills gathering that includes workshops like ‘stitch witchery’ and ‘communing with land spirits’.
Even as I write this right now, I’m listening to Harry Potter Lofi- because I just want every day to feel a little more magical.
But, as one very adorable tiny human asked me at a Fairy Brunch this weekend… is magic real? ✨
But hold up.
Before we get further into the story of magic…. I want to invite you to something!
Weekly Virtual Coworking for People with Tiny Businesses!
In case you didn’t know, community is magic.
As an ADHD person, I have learned to embrace the power of body doubling - a fancy term that describes the positive effect that working alongside another person has on your brain’s ability to find focus and get in the flow. Body doubling is especially effective for ADHD brains (I could get deep into the science of why that is, but maybe I’ll save it for another blog…)
As someone who works from home - that little boost of interaction with another person goes a long way! I’ve found virtual coworking to be a super effective way to supercharge my focus and get sh*t done, and would love to share that with my past clients and community.
SO - starting this month, I’m offering virtual coworking sessions to support other folks who, like me, could really benefit in their work life from a little routine, ritual & community! These FREE weekly coworking sprints are for people with tiny businesses and organizations (and hopefuls!)
In this weekly coworking sesh, we'll hop on Google Meet, have a quick community connect, identify what we'll each be working on, and then get down to it! We'll take two timed work sprints broken up by a short all-abilities guided stretch break, and wrap up with a high five and a renewed sense of accomplishment!
Whether your planning your business, catching up on bookkeeping, making content updates to your website, organizing your workspace, or really anything else you need to be a baddie in your business, I’ll be right there, working alongside you!
So, drop in sometime, or join a 6-week Community Coworking Cohort to make the most of it!
Okay, The Story of How I Became a Web Designer…
Lark About Design Co. was born out of my desire to make the world a better place by sharing my skill set and contagious enthusiasm with people who I think are doing amazing things… who just need a little help in the technology department to make it happen.
I was laid off from my last job on January 31st. I loved the company I was at and the software product I was working on for solopreneurs. I felt a lot of things, but chief among them was sadness—I had the best coworkers, I had just attended my first company Dungeons & Dragons session and I really believe the product I was working on could do a lot to empower soloprenuers.
It felt like a huge setback because that job also felt like the ‘proof’ that I had successfully made the career transition into design I had been working so hard on. So I decided to give myself a month before I started seriously applying for work—to be sad, rest and reorient, play a lot of music, and bake a sh*tload of cakes. I hoped to bring as much intention and ease into my next work move as possible.
At my first job fresh out of college, I remember looking across the office at a graphic designer I worked with and wishing that could be me.
I also remember the intense, and immediate fear of failure that got the best of me (hey, you know ADHD & rejection sensitivity dysphoria is a very real thing, right?!)
For whatever reasons, Designer felt like a job that was for other people—not me.
The story I told myself was that designers are people who are cooler than me. Destined to be more successful than me. People who have a better ‘eye’ and sense of style than me. I could never, because I just don’t have it… whatever ‘it’ was!
My degree was in Ecology & Evolutionary Biology, and the list of industries I worked in during the decade after graduating college is vast. I lovingly think of that time as my ‘experimental era’.
I typically took jobs because they sounded fun, unique, cool, more or less paid my bills, and later on because they would reasonably accommodate a chronic, debilitating facial pain condition I developed (booooo- 20/10 do NOT recommend!)
Other than finding jobs that used some of my existing skillset and where I could learn some new things, it didn’t feel like there was much of a consistent pattern in what I found enjoyable for work. I mostly liked everything I did, because I thrive when I’m learning new things!
It wasn’t until I was in my late twenties that I felt the desire to hone in on a more clear career path. But I had no clue what direction to head!
Little me, circa age 4.
Who could have guessed this kid would end up wanting to pursue a creative career?
You Are Not Too Much
Here’s a fun, incomplete, and non-ordered list of some of the things I’ve done for money since I graduated college:
Software sales at an EdTech company
Server at a beachside sports bar
Account manager at a buy-one-give-one soap company
Social media manager & barista at a coffee shop
Antique furniture repair specialist
Started a podcast
Marketing manager at an organic grocery store
ESL teacher
Kids yoga teacher
Goat yoga teacher
Community manager at a coworking space
Musician in a hobbit band
QA Tester for a podcasting recording platform for novices
Led a social club for homeschoolers called Steven Universe Clubhouse
After years of trying to make it work (and mostly having a lot of fun along the way), I decided I was ready. I actually wanted to start focusing more on a career path and less on a string of jobs.
Here were the three things that helped me the most in making that monumental shift:
I read a book called “Refuse to Choose!: Use All of Your Interests, Passions, and Hobbies to Create the Life and Career of Your Dreams” by Barbara Sher.
I started trusting that every step I took was bringing me closer to my dream job - even if I wasn’t able to explain to other people (or even myself!) exactly how or why… or even name exactly what my dream job was!
I embraced that - really, truly- there are no rules, only stories. And you are the author of your own story!
This little rock made me sob in the movie theater… both the first AND second time I saw Everything Everywhere All At Once.
For The Everything People
Refuse to Choose is a book for people who are “everything people,” as I like to call us. Those of us who like to live big. The people who want to climb every mountain and try all the flavors at the ice cream shop. Who want to travel the world and have a lush garden at home. Who read five books at once, and read magazines back to front (okay, that one truly might be just me).
I highly recommend Refuse to Choose to anyone who has ever felt this sense of ‘too-muchness.’
And I see this all the time with entrepreneurs. Every website I build starts with a Discovery Workshop where we dive deep into what someone does and why. When I invite people to start to share about their story so I can help craft the narrative on their website, it’s typical for them to freeze up. I see their eyes fill with worry that they might be ‘too much’, or have no idea where to start.
One of the activities in Sher’s book is to get a BIG piece of paper and write out everything you’ve ever done. Big, small, career, hobby, fun, casual, serious, ‘successes’, ‘failures’... ALL OF IT in one big stream-of-consciousness mess.
For a long time, I would have said that this would be my worst nightmare. I lived with so much fear of judgment that I was “too much.” The prospect of cramming myself into a one-page resume was daunting. I prayed no one would ask me in an interview to elaborate on my job history. Telling people about my life story fills me with a dread that I’m about to overwhelm the poor soul who dared ask.
But when I faced my fear and I wrote out my Great Big List of Everything… To my surprise, I didn’t feel overwhelmed or ashamed.
I felt super, super proud of myself for trying so many new things, overcoming adversity, and refusing to let the bad things that have happened to me stop me from living a big, full life. I was finally able to see that I’m a person with a huge capacity to be flexible, to learn, and to grow.
And when I was able to start cleaning off the slime that had been left by shame, I was able to see WAY more clearly what the common threads in my career history were.
I realized that I was always the one volunteering myself to take on tasks like marketing and training— because I love writing and making information accessible and exciting.
I saw that I volunteered for design projects at almost every job I’ve ever had — because I love designing.
I realized that, for not considering myself a visual artist, I’ve sure been doing a lot of visual art — because I love it!
I realized that I find an epic sense of fulfillment in helping bridge skills gaps for people.
I realized that I love hyping people up in the things that they’re passionate about, and that my ability to share my innate sense of enthusiasm is one of my strongest assets.
So, I decided to shake off the fear and go back to my young self who wanted to be a designer and say…
“Hell yeah, kid. You’re good enough. Let’s do this.”
So, I spent the next 4 years focusing on the ‘College of Lark’: intensive bootcamps, continuing ed, personal projects and work-studies to become the designer and person-advocate that I want to be.
I committed to being my favorite version of myself: learning, being flexible, and giving myself a dose of the enthusiasm and encouragement that I give to others so readily and freely.
My first job in design felt like a dream. But, like many jobs at small companies go, my role quickly evolved away from my initial responsibilities to best fit the needs of the company and the product… and I found myself doing a lot less of the work that lights me up than I wanted.
So, although layoffs are sudden and brutal, I also wanted to trust that maybe there was a little bit of magic at work here. When one door closes…
Lark About Design Co. is Born
At about 12:30 am on February 29th, exactly one month after I was laid off, I had an epiphany (there may have been a glass or two of wine involved).
I said out loud, “I don’t want to get another job. I don’t want to have to do a bunch of other stuff at another company. I just want to build websites for people who are doing awesome things that I think are making the world a better place!”
I realized that in my desire for financial security and being bestowed a job title, I had fallen victim to the classic corporate runaround of doing all the things. I realized that if I took another job, it was highly likely I’d have to make that compromise again - work really hard at being the “best” by doing a lot of stuff they need in order to get to do a little bit of what I want.
And I decided that I don’t need (or want) to be the best. I just want to hone in on and keep growing in the areas that I’ve already identified that I want to be good at!
It felt amazing, and a little scary, to give myself permission to pare back on the things that I can do and choose to specialize in the things that I want to do. (Side note: I think this is a common struggle for every almost-gifted kid who was told “you can be anything you want when you grow up!”)
It felt amazing, and a little scary, to say to 20-year-old me who didn’t think she’d ever be good enough to be a designer…
“Hey. It’s your time. I believe in you. Let’s freaking do it.”
Me at age 20.
Still a fan of bold eyewear and rugged mountains.
This Is What Magic Looks Like
This next part is where it gets wild. I woke up the very next morning to a text:
‘Hey! Hope you’re well. I know we haven’t spoken in a few years, but I’m trying to get my website going. It’s so frustrating, and you came to mind as someone I could maybe enlist to help me with it, or even just pay you to build it for me. What do you think?’
That text was the best possible magic spark I can imagine.
It felt like the universe was ON. It had heard me, and it brought me not just someone, but someone awesome- whose work I really love and felt completely delighted to support. Not even twelve hours after saying it out loud!
So, is magic real?
I don’t know.
But I do know that leaning in and saying ‘yes!’ and releasing the shame and fear within you that’s been keeping you from the things you want, can bring some seriously magical things into your world.
Now, to be real, not every single day feels like the stars are aligned. Just like any small business, there have been ups and downs. But overall, I’ve just been so, so grateful for the magic connections that keep popping up, showing me I’m on the right path here.
I think of them as will-o’-the-wisps. If you’ve been one of my will-o’-the-wisps, or been involved in connecting me with one—HUGE THANK YOU (and how does it feel to know you’re magic?!)
“Some say that will-o’-the-wisps lead you to your fate.”
Brave (2012)
It feels amazing to say that I truly love the work I’m doing and the way that it fits holistically into my life. I create my own schedule based on my natural rhythms of focus (and sleep, hunger, emotional needs, and sense of adventure!). I take breaks outside with my dog and cat every day.
Unfortunately, I also had a big heartbreak this summer. But, I’m finding I have the space in the life I’ve been building to tend & grieve without being adding the worry of striking the right balance of my personal and professional life. I generally feel like more of a whole person and less like I’m slowly breaking myself by trying to cram into a predefined role that someone else needed me to fit into.
My garden and plants are healthy because I’m around enough to prune, water and fertilize them, and I’ve shifted deeply towards nurturing what I’ve planted. I don’t worry about hustling on somebody else’s time clock, or about being accountable to a boss who doesn’t have my desires at heart.
Although I’m way more of a homebody than she expected, I think younger-me would be proud of where we’re at.
I’ve now seen the launch of multiple small businesses and their websites, jumpstarted people’s marketing plans, run Squarespace coaching sessions, done some kick*ss UX consulting projects, continued to increase my knowledge of SEO & web accessibility best practices, and have honed my offerings and internal policies & practices to be more friendly & accessible to ADHD brains (both mine, and my clients!).
I feel super grateful to be on the path that I’m on, and that the universe (and my community!!) keeps connecting me with people who I’m stoked to work with.
And, with my ADHD brain, I love learning about new things. Every single person I’ve worked with has brought me new perspectives and opened a door for me to learn about things I’ve never thought about before! From art to historic neighborhoods, dog grooming, elder care, therapy… even menopause!
I may choose a more specific web design niche at some point in the future.
But right now, I’m enjoying living it up as an Everything Person, and getting a ton of fulfillment out of working with the people who come to me and say:
“So, I want to start this thing. It’s time. It’s the culmination of a years-long dream of mine. Can I trust you to help me bring it to life?”
Because that feels like magic. AND BOY HOWDY WHAT A NICHE THAT IS.
Lark About Design Co. has been an incredible ride, and I’m so grateful to be on it.
Thank you, from the bottom of my heart, for being here with me, and thank you for bringing your magic into the world with what you do! ❤️✨
Are you ready to embrace YOUR dream?
If you’re ready to make the leap, transform your online presence and create a website that truly reflects your story, passion and vision, I’d love to work with you to showcase the amazing work you do in the world!
You can explore all my web design services to see what might be right for you. Together, we can get you where you want to be. Check out the Two Week Website & Brand Package and how it can transform your dream into your reality!
And when you’re ready, go ahead and schedule a free intro call with me.
I can’t wait to hear your story! Let’s create some magic!
Keywords: Personal update, Laid off from job, Career transition, Imposter syndrome, ADHD and work, Career paths, Design career, Marketing and design, Freelance design, Small business websites, Squarespace coaching, UX consulting, Web accessibility, ADHD friendly workspaces
